Category Archives: Personal

May 19

Gob-smacked

Posted on by

Well, my brother and sister-in-law from North Carolina and their kids are in for the weekend, for Jacob’s graduation on Friday and for the dedication of a pastor’s chair in my mother’s memory tomorrow at Blankenship United Methodist Church.

Yesterday, they gave me my birthday present, since they hadn’t been here for my birthday. They also mentioned wanting to go to Parnassus Books in Nashville today. My sister-in-law is an English professor, and they’d been reading about author Ann Patchett’s bookstore and had seen her appearance on “The Colbert Report” talking about the store. I’d been wanting to see the store myself, even though, as a Kindle user, I’ve gone over to what my brother  considers the Dark Side.

Dad had a funeral to take care of today at the funeral home where he works part-time.

So we drove to Nashville this morning, had a pleasant time at the bookstore, wandered around the Mall at Green Hills, then stopped at Toot’s South in Murfreesboro for lunch. Mike wanted to take the scenic route back to my Dad’s house. (That part should have raised a red flag, but I guess I’m a little dense.)

As we drove up to my father’s house, I noticed an extra car in the driveway. As we pulled in, I noticed several extra cars.

It was at that point I realized I had been had.

It was a surprise 50th birthday party. Dad did not have a funeral today after all, and the Parnassus trip – however enjoyable – had actually been for the purpose of getting me away from the house for a while so that he, Mrs. Rachel, my sister, my other brother and the rest of my nieces and nephews could set things up. The guests included my pastor and his wife, my Sunday School teacher and his wife and my former editor Mark McGee.

I have to admit, I did not suspect a thing. Not a blooming thing. It was a lovely party.

Jacob’s graduation, by the way, was a great time as well. You will remember that he was both an award-winning football star (who has a scholarship to play this fall at the University of North Alabama) and a basketball star. Neither of those things prevented him from being third in his class – and he missed being salutatorian by only the thinnest of margins. He spoke at the graduation as class president, and did a terrific job.

Tomorrow should be a nice morning as well. Dad pastored at Blankenship (which was then part of a three-point charge) for 16 years, starting around the time I was graduating from high school. When he was there for the opening of their beautiful new sanctuary earlier this year, he noted that they did not have a nice chair for the pastor. He and Mrs. Rachel decided to buy a chair in memory of Mom and of Mrs. Rachel’s late husband Clayton. The chair is finally in and ready to be dedicated.

By the way, when we were at my sister’s house after graduation last night in Linden, Mrs. Rachel pointed out the earrings and necklace she was wearing to my sister and me. They were, it turns out, a secret pal gift to her from my mother, back when Dad was pastor at Mt. Olivet and Mom and Mrs. Rachel were in the United Methodist Women together. It was a lovely moment of recognizing Mom’s presence even in the midst of her absence. She would have been very proud to have been sitting in the bleachers watching her grandson Jacob get his diploma, just as she was proud to see Jacey cross the stage two years ago.

May 08

Milestones

Posted on by

I haven’t been to Hawaii, and won’t be going any time soon, but the number Five-O appears to have special significance for me today, so:

Symphony at the CelebrationIn some ways, the passage of time distills down to lost opportunities. But I’m reminded in several ways today of things in which I take a lot of satisfaction. This morning, I’m going to Tullahoma to appear on cable TV talking about the symphony concert. I believe they post this show to YouTube the next day, and I’ll put up a link to it if that’s the case.

If I get done there soon enough, I will rush back to Shelbyville for a birthday lunch with Dad — but he’s got to work a funeral this afternoon, and so we’ve only got a certain window.

Then, tonight, I have Relay For Life meetings, both to review how we did at the crawfish festival and to do some intensive planning for the Relay itself, which is coming up in less than a month.

My wonderful co-workers, knowing I was taking today off, surprised me Monday with a display at my desk, a birthday cake and other munchies.

It should be a good day today.

May 03

Pitch perfect

Posted on by

Even though we got a few sprinkles of rain today, it didn’t do much to soften up the ground.

I know; in the past couple of days, I’ve put out three yard signs for the upcoming “Symphony At The Celebration” concert. I have five to put out, but it’s been an incredibly busy week at work, and I’ve only had time to put out three of them. And I’m scared I didn’t do a good job with two of those; the ground is so hard that the little wire stands tended to bend rather than punch through the dirt.

I need to put one of my remaining signs somewhere on North Main Street. I need to ask Dawn for a suggestion, if I can get in touch with her.

Dawn Holley is the long-time chair of the local steering committee for the concert. Up until this year, my title has always been “publicity chairman.” This year, Dawn and I are co-chairs, and Dawn is at a conference this week, so I found myself attempting to stamp pipecleaner signs into what feels like the Bonneville Salt Flats.

No matter. We’re already getting the word out about the concert. Next Tuesday, I’m driving to Tullahoma to appear on a community access cable TV program to discuss it. I’ve been sending out press releases, and two different radio stations are giving tickets away. (It’s not that pricey a giveaway item – adult general admission is $5, and children or students of any age don’t even need a ticket.)

If you haven’t been around me for more than 15 seconds, I have to explain that this symphony concert is one of the great passions of my adult life. The Nashville Symphony has been coming to Shelbyville annually since 1989 (there was, at one point, a year-and-a-half gap when we switched from a fall concert to a spring concert). I attended the very first concert – I think I’ve attended all of the official public concerts – and wrote about it in the newspaper. But it wasn’t until a couple of years later that I became actively involved. The concert had been started by one of our local industries, but when that industry changed hands they dialed back their support and a bank stepped in. The bank was then known as First American Bank, and the late Scott McDonald was its president. Scott was the one who invited me to be a part of the steering committee. A year or two after that, Bedford County Arts Council got involved, and that was how Dawn came into the picture.

Scott McDonald, one of the most community-minded men it’s been my privilege to know, had a vision of the concert as an educational tool. That vision has become even more of a reality in recent years. For the past six concerts, including the one that will take place this month, we’ve rotated among Bedford County’s three public high schools, all of which now have fine band programs. This year, it’s Shelbyville Central High School’s turn. During the first half of the program, the Nashville Symphony plays, and then – just before intermission – the high school band gets to perform a few selections.

After intermission, the symphony plays some more, and then – for the big grand finale – the symphony and the high school band play together on two or three selections, always ending with “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” Traditionally, the piccolo player from the high school band gets to take the solo.

The whole evening is intended to be casual and family-friendly. It takes place inside Calsonic Arena, on the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration grounds, but it has the feel of an outdoor concert. There’s an art show on the arena concourse, with everything from professional paintings and sculpture to crayon drawings by elementary school kids. The Motlow State Community College jazz band performs an hour before the concert proper. Last year, we added the Nashville Symphony’s “instrument petting zoo,” and I deeply regret that Scott was never able to see this, because he’d have been thrilled by it. Trained volunteers are stationed at tables with real symphonic instruments, and kids (or adults, for that matter) are able to pick them up, see how they work, and try them out. I dare you to watch this and not smile. Two years ago, we planned to have the petting zoo, but the Nashville floods – just a week before the concert! – destroyed the instruments used for the program. Last year, we had hoped to have things set up outside the arena, but the threat of rain forced us to use a meeting room inside. This year, we’re hoping for our original plan of having the tables set up outside, so that parents and kids will see the instruments as they arrive and get to try them on their way into the building.

We’ve had some wonderful symphony conductors in the history of the Shelbyville concert, including Karen Lynne Deal and Byung-Hyun Rhee. For five of the past six concerts, however, we’ve been thrilled to have Albert-George Schram, who normally conducts the Nashville Symphony’s pops concerts in Nashville. (I think it’s a mark of the symphony’s special affection for this concert that we get Maestro Schram, who doesn’t do most of the other community concerts.) Maestro Schram, a native of the Netherlands, is funny and accessible, which is really important for a setting where there are a lot of kids and adults in the audience attending their first-ever symphony concert.  I love getting to Calsonic Arena on the afternoon of the concert early enough to watch him rehearse with the high school band. That’s the first time the kids get to rehearse under Maestro Schram’s direction – and they don’t actually get to rehearse with the symphony at all. The actual tandem performance is the first time they get to play together with the symphony.

I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to ramble this much. I guess you can tell how much I love this concert, and how proud I am to have played even a small part in its history and development. As I approach a round-number birthday next week, there are aspects of my life in which I’m disappointed and for which I blame myself. This is not one of them.

Anyway, if you’re within driving distance of Shelbyville and would like to see the show, we’d love to have you. We always have a good crowd, but due to the arena’s generous seating capacity we always have tickets at the door. (I take that back – last year or the previous year we ran out of physical tickets, but we’ve never run out of actual seats.)

Apr 25

A light in the darkness

Posted on by

As we move through April and approach May, we’re getting into Relay For Life season. Here in Bedford County, the Relay is scheduled for June 1-2, but I thought I’d go ahead and post this for the benefit of any out-of-town readers whose events might take place sooner than that.

Two years ago, I had little real conception of what the American Cancer Society Relay For Life was all about. Some years earlier, when our local Relay was much, much smaller than it is today, I went out and took a photo of the survivor lap for the newspaper. I didn’t stick around.

People are so familiar with the idea of a fund-raising walk or run that some people — and I guess I was one of them — tune out Relay if they know they’re not going to be an officially-registered participant. But Relay, as I discovered last year, depends on visitors to make it work. If the only people who show up for our Relay For Life on June 1 are the registered walkers, our Relay will be a huge disappointment. Instead of thinking of the Relay as a walk, you need to think of it as a festival. The Relay’s slogan is “Celebrate. Remember. Fight back,” and that’s a perfect description of what the event is really all about and why you need to stop by and pay a visit when it happens in your community.

For one thing, the Relay teams are not just walking. Each team has a base of operations called a campsite, and most of the campsites also function as concession stands — selling food, or wristbands, or face-painting, or a bouncy house, or what have you. A Relay event is a great place to bring the kids, and they’ll have a tremendous time.

There are also the various traditional moments and ceremonies during the Relay. I’ve already mentioned the survivor lap; the first lap of the event is made by cancer survivors, so that we can cheer them on. Later in the evening comes the luminaria ceremony. Luminaria — paper bags, each with a candle inside — are a trademark of the Relay. You may have seen the TV commercial featuring the luminaria.

You can buy a luminaria and write someone’s name on it to honor or remember them. There are also torches (although I don’t think you can buy them the night of the event, because the plaques are engraved) and sky lanterns. Sky lanterns will be a new addition to Shelbyville’s event this year. They’re a cross between a luminaria and a hot air balloon.

During the luminaria ceremony, all of the lights in the area are turned off and the arena is lit only by the luminaria, torches and sky lanterns. There’s a special recitation in honor of those who have battled cancer. The sky lanterns will be released into the sky. It’s the type of moment that is not easily forgotten.

In the wee hours of the morning, of course, most of the casual public visitors go home. But the activity goes on. There’s a huge game of musical chairs, with 100 or more participants; various picnic-style games and what have you.

Different Relay events have different schedules, but they always run overnight. It’s meant to symbolize the passage of cancer patients through darkness and struggle — into the triumph of remission or, as in my Mom’s case, at least a relief from pain and a release to one’s eternal reward.

This year, since Bedford County has switched from a 12-hour format to an 18-hour format, there will be a new opportunity for the public to come out and celebrate with us on Saturday morning. Some of the teams which sell dinner food on Friday will offer breakfast food on Saturday. We’re talking to a local radio station about a live remote.

Last year, in the wake of my mother’s death, Phillip Oliver’s death, and Vickie Hull’s survival of breast cancer, Vickie decided that First United Methodist Church needed a Relay For Life team. I happily signed up, grateful for some constructive response to make to what had been a devastating loss for our family. By the end of our 2011 Relay, I was hooked, and I remember thinking to myself that Relay was going to be a permanent part of my life. Little did I know that just a few months later, Samantha Chamblee and Harriet Stewart would come to see me at the paper and ask me to join the local Relay committee.

Please go to http://relayforlife.org and find the Relay event in your area. If you’re here in Bedford County, just go straight to http://relayforlife.org/bedfordtn. Put the Relay on your calendar, even if you’re not affiliated with a team or participant. Stop by and help us celebrate our survivors and the progress that has been made; remember those we’ve lost; and fight back against this devastating class of diseases.

Apr 11

The saffron of over-the-counter medications

Posted on by

Well, according to the Mayo Clinic, cold sores can be triggered by excessive exposure to sunlight, and so I think I brought this on myself — when I was out at Walmart on Saturday, selling tickets for the Cancer Sucks! Crawfish Festival to benefit the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, I failed to take the cancer society’s own good advice and wear some sunscreen. I got burned as red as those crawfish in our festival logo. And now, I have a cold sore.

I had a lipstick-sized pump of Abreva, the saffron of over-the-counter medications, and I’ve used up every last molecule, even breaking open the pump and scraping around in it with a nail file for the last little gobbets. I went to several of the chain pharmacy web sites today to remind myself just how ridiculously overpriced Abreva is, and CVS had it on sale for online purchase — but that apparently doesn’t mean it’s also on sale in the brick-and-mortar stores. CVS charged $20.99 in store for either the pump or the tiny little tube, and Rite Aid charged $19.99. I didn’t feel like I needed to spend the money this week, and so I bought some ointment with zinc, lysine and beeswax — none of which the FDA will let them list as active ingredients — from our good friends at Placebo Industries. Hopefully, the 24 hours when I was putting Abreva on the sore will have given it a head start on healing up, and this cheapo oinment will distract me with the notion that I’m actually doing something for the cold sore.

Man, I can’t wait for Abreva to run out of patent and go generic. Because it really is effective; it’s just way overpriced.

Mar 15

Hashtag #beunstoppable

Posted on by

Most of my boasting about my nephew in the past year has been related to his football prowess. But he’s an all-around athlete, and small schools like Perry County High School allow a little more opportunity for athletic multi-tasking.

So, tonight, he and the Vikings played in the first round of the TSSAA state championships at Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

I rode up with Dad and Ms. Rachel, and before the Perry County game even started we had a memorable moment. In the Lake County / Booker T. Washington game, Lake County was down by three points, with Booker T. Washington High School at the foul line and only a few seconds left. But the BTW player missed his shot, and then a Lake County player, from three-quarters of the way down the court, drained a three-pointer exactly as the buzzer sounded. It was an amazing shot, and Murphy Center erupted.

Unfortunately, it’s that same Lake County team which Perry County will be facing tomorrow night, after … oh, wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.

Dad, Jacob and my sister Elecia

Me and Elecia

Perry County played Wartburg tonight. After the first period, Wartburg led 13-9. Jacob got a couple of fouls early and was pulled for a little while in that first period. But Perry County took off soon after that, and — led, I must point out, by my nephew’s 17 points — won 71-43. Need proof? Here’s the final scoreboard:

Feb 21

Music, mortality, music

Posted on by

On Tuesday, May 8 of this year, I will be a half-century old.

Fortunately, I won’t have time to mope about it. Three days earlier, on May 5, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of Bedford County, for which I’m an organizing committee member, will host the “Cancer Sucks” Crawfish Festival, which over the past few months has grown from the germ of an idea into a massive, 12-hour-long festival headlined by a major recording artist, Keith Anderson.

But once that’s over, I can relax and enjoy dread enjoy my 50th birthday, right?

Guess again, Clyde. Seven days after my birthday, on Tuesday, May 15, will be the event which has become one of the great passions of my adult life, Symphony At The Celebration, the annual concert by the Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony in Calsonic Arena on the Celebration grounds, featuring the Motlow College Jazz Ensemble and one of our local high school bands (this year, Shelbyville Central High School) as guest artists. I am also a member of the committee which puts on this event.

These two events are going to be an incredible amount of fun, and I will thoroughly enjoy being a part of both of them, provided I don’t go completely bonkers first.

Then, after the symphony concert, I’ll have more than two whole weeks until June 1, the actual date of the Relay For Life.

By the way, if you’re looking to get something for my birthday, I’d love for you to either buy Crawfish Festival tickets or just contribute directly towards my participation in the Relay For Life.

Feb 09

Tow trucks and child prodigies

Posted on by

I’ve mentioned on Facebook and elsewhere that I’m really enjoying my new Kindle, which arrived yesterday, and that I did some reading last night while in Murfreesboro.

What, you might ask, is the first book I’m reading?

Well, there are several books on the device already: the two Jules Verne novels that I managed to finish on my smartphone before the Kindle arrived, the free Bible that I downloaded while trying to figure out which Bible to buy, and The Siege of Washington : The Untold Story of the Twelve Days That Shook the Union, which I discovered on sale through the terrific web site Ereader News Today, which spotlights whatever books Amazon happens to have on sale (or free!). Today, caught up in Dickens bicentennial madness, I downloaded A Christmas Carol, which like the Verne books is a public domain work offered by Amazon for free.

But – other than looking up a couple of Bible passages – the first book I’m actually reading on my Kindle is kind of unexpected: God Drives a Tow Truck, an inspirational book by Vicky Kaseorg. The book is normally $2.99 in the Kindle store, but when I stumbled across it the other day, during my fevered week of Kindle anticipation, it was free. I can’t recall whether I saw it on Ereader News Today or somewhere else.

I’m not usually a “Chicken Soup For The Soul” kind of guy, but the reviews on Amazon were favorable, saying that Kaseorg’s autobiographical stories were frank and funny. It just seemed like it might be something worth reading, especially at the no-risk price of zero. (The Kindle holds 1,400 books, and even if I were ever to delete some of them to free up space, I can always re-download any book I’ve purchased.)

I have to say, it’s an easy and enjoyable read. Yes, it’s upbeat, inspirational, and a little predictable at times, but the stories are well-told, Kaseorg has a sense of humor about herself, and the sentiment seems genuine, not manufactured. The stories cover various periods in the author’s life, many of them taking place when she hadn’t yet come to the Christian faith. Some deal with her love of animals, others with her family life or with people she’s encountered along the way. Kaseorg is also an artist, and each chapter has an illustration; that’s the one drawback of the Kindle’s otherwise-wonderful black-and-white e-ink display.

There are some of the stories that I can probably use in the future as sermon illustrations when I lay speak. (I always attribute stuff like that, by the way. I will never forget the time when a previous pastor of mine used Walter Wangerin’s story “Ragman” from the pulpit without saying where it came from, as if he had made it up. I was furious, “Ragman” being one of my favorite stories.)

Anyway, even though it’s not free anymore it’s still a good buy, an inspirational book that actually is inspirational.

Feb 05

The whole eBible

Posted on by

I want to put a Bible on my Kindle – I’ve got room for 1,500 books, after all – but I seem to have a dilemma, and it’s a surprising one, given the popularity of the Kindle in the past year or two.

The Bible translations I’d use most often – the New Revised Standard Version, which is used in a lot of official United Methodist literature, or the most recent update of the New International Version – are available for Kindle, but according to the reviews they don’t have e-reader-friendly navigation. There are some other Kindle Bibles that do have good navigation, making it easy to look up a chapter and verse, but they don’t come in any of the translations I like. There are also some specialty NIV Bibles that cost more than I’m looking to spend right now or that are organized in special ways, including the Passages NIV e-Bible that has the readings broken up so that you can follow along with the Daily Audio Bible. As a DAB listener, I may get the Passages Bible eventually, but it’s not what I’m looking for right now.

I have ordered a Holman Christian Standard Bible for free; I’ve heard them use that translation on DAB from time to time, although I’m not too familiar with it otherwise. But I really want HarperCollins or Zondervan to get on the stick and create a great, reasonably-priced NRSV or NIV e-edition.